sims 4 won't open, keeps crashing to EA app

helloo :) i've been having issues opening the sims 4 since the last patch update, although i'm not sure if that even has anything to do with it. every time i go to open the sims, it starts to load as it usually would and gets to the diamond loading thing, but before it even opens to the main menu it crashes back to the EA app. i've tried so many things to fix it but nothing has worked, and i want to try to avoid deleting and redownloading the sims if i can because i'm scared of losing my saves. and for context, i have the sims installed on an external hard drive. if anyone has any suggestions on how to fix this, please let me know :)